Unlock iPhone 5S on the Refresh Tarriff

[Anonymous]

Hey guys!

I took out a new refresh contract with the iPhone 5S. I needed it unlocked as I need it for use on two networks, when I enquired about the unlock on live chat, I was told they would unlock the handset, but only after the phone plan had been paid in full.

I then called customer services to check this information was correct, and I was assured it was, so paid the phone plan in full, went back to live chat, and they submitted a unlock request.

The next day - an email arrived from 'back office support' stating they are not yet authorised to unlock iPhone 5S handsets!

I spoke to customer services again who stated that was incorrect and passed it back through! Im a little worried as I dont want it to go past my cooling off period and then they say that cant do it! 

Anyone here in the same boat or successfully had your iPhone 5S unlocked?

[Anonymous]

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@davethorp wrote:
There's people not following the process then as my phone plan is paid off yet the unlock was still refused

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I would challenge it with the individual advisor, ask them to read their process fully and if still refused, escalate.

[Anonymous]

Seems customer service don't know about this for some reason

[Anonymous]

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@Anonymous wrote:
Seems customer service don't know about this for some reason

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Naturally I can't copy/paste internal processes verbatim, however its correct that if the phone plan is paid off the iPhone 5c/5s can be unlocked.

[davethorp]

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@davethorp wrote:
There's people not following the process then as my phone plan is paid off yet the unlock was still refused

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I would challenge it with the individual advisor, ask them to read their process fully and if still refused, escalate.

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Bit hard when unlock requests aren't dealt with by individual advisers but "Back Office Support" and it is them who refused me

[Anonymous]

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@davethorp wrote:

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@Anonymous wrote:

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@davethorp wrote:
There's people not following the process then as my phone plan is paid off yet the unlock was still refused

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I would challenge it with the individual advisor, ask them to read their process fully and if still refused, escalate.

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Bit hard when unlock requests aren't dealt with by individual advisers but "Back Office Support" and it is them who refused me

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Phone and speak to an advisor.  They do the request on your behalf.  They then have an obligation to see it through, including escalating the request if rejected in error.

[davethorp]

I did phone up at first. Well I asked for the unlock at the same time as paying off my phone plan. The advisor directed me to the unlocking form on the website

[Anonymous]

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@davethorp wrote:

I did phone up at first. Well I asked for the unlock at the same time as paying off my phone plan. The advisor directed me to the unlocking form on the website

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My advice on that is to call back and refuse to do it online.  They can't force you to.

[davethorp]

I'm unlocked now. Twitter sorted it

[Bambino]

Well done, and about time too. This should never have taken this long. Another instance of one hand of O2 not knowing what the other hand is doing. 

[jrhop123]

Just to add my experience, I have a 5S on O2 Refresh, taken out in September. I asked an O2 chat customer support person how I would go about unlocking my phone, they put the request in straight away and the next day I got an email confirming it had been done. See below, couldn't have been easier.

** THIS IS AN AUTOMATED MESSAGE **

Hi,

Your iPhone unlatching request for IMEI xxxxxxxxxxxxx has been
completed. To finish off unlocking your iPhone you need to put a non-O2
sim in and connect to iTunes using a USB cable. iTunes will then tell
you the unlocking was successful; and you're away. If you've got any
more questions, have a look at our help page
www.O2.co.uk/unlockmyiphone.

Thank you,

O2 Customer Service